Washington,
D.C. – Today representatives of NARAL
Pro-Choice America joined Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mayor Vincent Gray, and
other reproductive rights leaders to amplify their opposition to anti-choice
bills that would undermine the ability of women in the city to make personal,
private medical decisions with their doctors.

The two
bills, H.R.3803/S.1203, would ban abortion at 20 weeks, without consideration
for the woman’s situation or exceptions to protect her health. District of
Columbia resident Christy Zink, who had an abortion at 21 weeks and five days
after doctors found a cyst on the brain of the fetus and a follow-up MRI
revealed severe fetal anomalies of the brain, spoke at the news conference. If
the ban proposed by the bills had been in effect, Zink would not have had this
option in D.C.

The bills are modeled after an
abortion ban enacted in Nebraska in 2010. As of 2011, five more states followed
Nebraska’s lead and now anti-choice organizations are pressuring Congress to
override local elected leaders and impose this ban on the women of D.C.

Lissy
Moskowitz, a Washington, D.C. resident who serves as deputy policy director of
NARAL Pro-Choice America, a national group with more than one million
supporters, spoke
at the news conference. Her remarks, as prepared for delivery, follow:

I
am also a proud resident of the District of Columbia. On behalf of NARAL’s one million members
activists, I want to thank Delegate Norton and Mayor Gray for your incredible leadership
on behalf of the nation’s capital.

We
believe that no woman’s constitutional right to choose should depend upon her
zip code. Yet, as we’ve heard here this
morning, the Franks/Lee bill singles out the District of Columbia for an
outright ban on abortion care after 20 weeks, regardless of the woman’s
situation and without adequate exceptions to protect her health.

Without
question, this far-reaching agenda is yet another example of how this Congress
is out of touch with our country’s values and priorities.

As
we heard earlier, Christy’s story about her experience illustrates that 20-week
abortion bans are a cruel attempt by anti-choice forces to curb access to care
for women in the most challenging/difficult of circumstances.

D.C.
is the latest target in an anti-choice effort to take decisions away from women
and their doctors.

What
we’re seeing today started less than two years ago in Nebraska, and it’s
spreading state by state. As of 2011,
five more states followed Nebraska’s lead, bringing the tally up to six. Sponsors of these bills freely admit that
they are trying to lure the Supreme Court into discarding the Roe v. Wade
framework and therefore threaten the reproductive rights of women across the
country. With that, it should come as no
surprise that the National Right to Life Committee has declared the Franks/Lee
bill its top legislative priority.

Opponents
of choice long have used the District of Columbia as an anti-choice proving
ground. The Franks/Lee bill aimed at the
reproductive rights of women living in the nation’s capital is no
different.

NARAL is fully prepared to fight back against this latest egregious attack on a
woman’s right to choose, just as we did last year when anti-choice forces
hijacked the appropriations process and reimposed the D.C. abortion funding ban
as part of their ongoing War on Women.
NARAL delivered nearly 135,000 signatures in opposition to a bill that
would have permanently codified this discriminatory policy, and last year our
activist network channeled more than 400,000 messages to Congress opposing
anti-choice measures. In the week
preceding Senate action on this issue, we directed over 1,200 calls to targeted
offices which helped prevent the DC ban from becoming part of the Senate’s bill. NARAL Pro-Choice America is prepared to put
the same level of activism toward fighting the Franks/Lee bill. We will not allow this assault on the women
of the District of Columbia go unanswered.

Delegate Norton and Mayor Gray: our nation-wide
network of more than one million members activists and our pro-choice allies
here today stand with you and are ready to fight for the women of D.C.